Venom has officially set a new Thursday night opening record at the October box office. Sony has an entire universe of plans resting on the performance of the Tom Hardy led Venom. They are desperate to launch a connected universe of their own and have been putting plans in motion to make this possible. But, before they get too far down this road, they are making sure they have a solid foundation. They tapped Spider-Man's iconic foe Venom to be the star of their first "spinoff", but it is not yet clear if it will be the universe launching pad they hoped it would be.
The movie has received largely negative reviews out the gate, and more continue to pour in. Venom's overall rotten performance with critics has thus turned everyone's attention towards Venom's box office potential. Seeing as Venom has been projected to set a new record for the biggest opening weekend ever in October for some time now, many people have been wondering how the critical response will impact its projected opening weekend. So far, the answer seems to be "Not a whole lot".
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The preview night earnings for Venom are in, with THR reporting that the anti-hero movie grossed $10 million in Thursday night previews. This figure already makes Venom a record holder for the biggest Thursday preview night ever in October. Thanks to its early screenings, Venom is easily outpacing the weekend's other big release, A Star Is Born, which made $3.2M in preview sales. Venom also started much stronger than the last live-action superhero movie to hit theaters, Marvel Studios' Ant-Man and The Wasp, which only made $6.4M in previews.
This is a very strong start for Venom and one that should lead to it indeed breaking the October opening weekend record. Pre-sale ticket numbers were strong for Venom, and most die hard fans likely already checked out the movie last night. Even though the critical reaction wasn't favorable, if there's positive word of mouth from general audiences, then that could keep Venom's box office potential high. Of course, this strong start won't mean anything if general audiences don't check out the film this weekend. Thankfully for Sony, Venom appears primed to be a big hit worldwide and not just domestically.
Venom is still currently projected to make between $55M-$65M in its opening weekend, with some estimates even suggesting an opening higher than $70M could be possible. While A Star Is Born will generate interest of its own, Venom is still expected to beat it this weekend by a large margin. In order for Sony to make more spinoffs or green light a Venom sequel, however, the movie will need to turn a profit on its $100M budget.
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Source: THR
